{"id":642,"date":"2023-03-10T09:38:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T09:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/?p=642"},"modified":"2025-07-18T10:35:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T10:35:39","slug":"custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to designing a new website for your business, there are endless choices that can be confusing and completely overwhelming.<\/p>\n<p>The type of website you build today will play a big part in your overall digital marketing strategy today as well as in the future. So, it\u2019s important to be mindful of your future goals when deciding whether to use a custom website design or a template.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re wondering whether a website built from a template or a custom website would be the right choice, we\u2019ve broken down the differences for you. After reading this, we hope you will have a better understanding of which option is best for you.<\/p>\n<h2>Custom Websites<\/h2>\n<p>If you have a moderate to large budget and lots of free time, then building a custom website is the best choice for businesses. A custom website might have more upfront but it has many benefits, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Better <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/is-seo-important-for-every-business\/\">SEO for websites<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Easy to showcase brand identity.<\/li>\n<li>Best security options.<\/li>\n<li>Option to scale website in the future.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/things-you-should-know-before-developing-ui-ux\/\">Plan your website navigation<\/a> and customise the website\u2019s navigation structure to create a better UE user experience.<\/li>\n<li>Easy to add site searching on the website.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Custom websites can help you save money AND make you money in the long run.<\/p>\n<h2>Website Templates<\/h2>\n<p>If you don\u2019t have a big budget and are short on time, then using a website template to build a basic website to promote your business is a smart choice.<\/p>\n<p>The most popular website providers and platforms that offer templates and themes for building websites are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>WordPress<\/li>\n<li>Wix<\/li>\n<li>Webflow<\/li>\n<li>GoDaddy<\/li>\n<li>Squarespace<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Template websites may be easier to build and are less expensive<strong>, <\/strong>however, they usually require more third-party plugins and maintenance to function properly and have the look you want. So, even though they save money today, they can cost more long-term.<\/p>\n<p><em>Haarty Hanks<\/em> is one of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/why-hh.html\"> best website design companies <\/a>in the UK for website redesigns, new customer websites, and digital marketing. Our talented team can build you the website and digital marketing strategy you need to give your business the boost it needs to grow and scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to designing a new website for your business, there are endless choices that can be confusing and completely overwhelming. The type of website you build today will play a big part in your overall digital marketing strategy today as well as in the future. So, it\u2019s important to be mindful of your &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[203,218,181,220,219,182,180],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best? - Haarty Hanks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Custom website design vs website templates - which one suits your business best? Find the answers from Haarty Hanks in this article.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best? - Haarty Hanks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Custom website design vs website templates - which one suits your business best? Find the answers from Haarty Hanks in this article.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Haarty Hanks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-10T09:38:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-18T10:35:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Custom-Website-Design-vs-Template-Which-One-Suits-Your-Business-Best.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"644\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Haarty Hanks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Haarty Hanks\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Haarty Hanks\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b5b1900103e9bc4a9eaf43d5db3aa933\"},\"headline\":\"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-10T09:38:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-18T10:35:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/\"},\"wordCount\":370,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"best website design company\",\"Plan Your Website Navigation\",\"SEO for website\",\"Site Search Functionality\",\"website\u2019s navigation structure\",\"websites for web design company\",\"Websites redesign\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Web Design and Development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/\",\"name\":\"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best? - Haarty Hanks\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-10T09:38:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-18T10:35:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Custom website design vs website templates - which one suits your business best? Find the answers from Haarty Hanks in this article.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Haarty Hanks\",\"description\":\"Digital Marketing Solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Haarty Hanks\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/hhlogo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/hhlogo-1.png\",\"width\":177,\"height\":125,\"caption\":\"Haarty Hanks\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b5b1900103e9bc4a9eaf43d5db3aa933\",\"name\":\"Haarty Hanks\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b3e22638558f2a3b062f47550cb9fac?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b3e22638558f2a3b062f47550cb9fac?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Haarty Hanks\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best? - Haarty Hanks","description":"Custom website design vs website templates - which one suits your business best? Find the answers from Haarty Hanks in this article.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best? - Haarty Hanks","og_description":"Custom website design vs website templates - which one suits your business best? Find the answers from Haarty Hanks in this article.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/","og_site_name":"Haarty Hanks","article_published_time":"2023-03-10T09:38:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-18T10:35:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":644,"url":"http:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Custom-Website-Design-vs-Template-Which-One-Suits-Your-Business-Best.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Haarty Hanks","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Haarty Hanks","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/"},"author":{"name":"Haarty Hanks","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b5b1900103e9bc4a9eaf43d5db3aa933"},"headline":"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best?","datePublished":"2023-03-10T09:38:26+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-18T10:35:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/"},"wordCount":370,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["best website design company","Plan Your Website Navigation","SEO for website","Site Search Functionality","website\u2019s navigation structure","websites for web design company","Websites redesign"],"articleSection":["Web Design and Development"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/","url":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/","name":"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best? - Haarty Hanks","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-03-10T09:38:26+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-18T10:35:39+00:00","description":"Custom website design vs website templates - which one suits your business best? Find the answers from Haarty Hanks in this article.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/custom-website-design-vs-template-which-one-suits-your-business-best\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Custom Website Design vs Template: Which One Suits Your Business Best?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/","name":"Haarty Hanks","description":"Digital Marketing Solutions","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Haarty Hanks","url":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/hhlogo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/hhlogo-1.png","width":177,"height":125,"caption":"Haarty Hanks"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b5b1900103e9bc4a9eaf43d5db3aa933","name":"Haarty Hanks","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b3e22638558f2a3b062f47550cb9fac?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b3e22638558f2a3b062f47550cb9fac?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Haarty Hanks"},"url":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1387,"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions\/1387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haartyhanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}